The present invention generally relates to mail collection, and in particular to the containment of hazardous materials deposited into the mail collection system.
The recent incidents of anthrax-laced letters being transported through the United States Postal Service (USPS) facilities by unsuspecting mail handlers to unsuspecting recipients has alarmed the nation and the world. Currently, the tainted letters are discovered after the recipient accepts delivery or by alert postal employees noticing white powder that could be anthrax on mail parcels, sorting and distribution equipment, or themselves. There appear to be no current security devices or procedures that are available to intercept such letters at the earliest source of introduction into the USPS system.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to be able to isolate items deposited into the mail collection system, so that adequate testing may be performed to detect the presence of any contaminants.
Accordingly, one embodiment of the present invention provides a mail processing apparatus, including an enclosure adapted for receiving deposited mail articles, a depository port adapted for passing deposited mail articles into the enclosure, and a sealing apparatus operatively associated with the depository port and adapted to enclose deposited mail articles in a sealing layer.
The sealing apparatus may be a laminator adapted to apply a layer of plastic material to opposing sides of deposited mail articles. The laminator may be adapted to sense the presence of deposited mail articles and to be activated in response to such sensed mail articles to laminate them. The laminator may comprise a separate roll of plastic material adapted for providing the layer of plastic material for each opposing side of the deposited mail articles and means for cutting applied plastic layers between sequentially laminated mail articles. The depository port may be sized to limit the thickness of deposited mail like articles which may be passed through the depository port. Also, the enclosure may be a public collection box.